Women and girls bear brunt of Africa “transport poverty”
Johannesburg, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation Long queues in the rain, daily four-hour trips in a public taxi, the constant threat of road accidents, and nearly having to use a pen as a knife to fight off an aggressive male passenger. These are just some of the challenges Busisiwe Nongauza has faced while commuting to and […]
Wow!: Spurred by COVID-19, African schools innovate to close learning gap
NELLIE PEYTON and KIM HARRISBERG, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, report on how the rise of remote learning could change education in Africa…
Forest loss seen slowing globally, but progress patchy
Rome, ItalyThomson Reuters Foundation Global forest loss has slowed over the past five years, UN researchers said on Thursday, but progress has been uneven, with population growth driving a rise in deforestation in Africa. Over the past decade, forest loss halved in South America, long a hotspot, according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, […]
Keep girls in schools to end hunger and poverty, Sachs tells governments
Rome, ItalyThomson Reuters Foundation Keeping girls in schools in Africa is key to lowering the fast-growing continent’s high fertility rates and ultimately ending hunger and poverty, US economist Jeffrey Sachs said Wednesday. Failure to do would bring more misery and suffering to the region, he warned, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where nearly one in four […]
Spotlight gives hope to Africa’s hunted albinos
Thomson Reuters Foundation Increased funding and awareness campaigns are helping to slow the rates of violence against people with albinism in Africa, according to officials and campaigners. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, people with albinism – a lack of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes – are attacked for their body parts which […]
Half urban population of sub-Saharan Africa still living in slums – study
Johannesburg, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation Housing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have improved dramatically since 2000, but nearly half the urban population still lives in slums, according to a major new study published on Wednesday. Research in Nature magazine found the proportion of homes that met United Nations criteria for building standards, living space per person, […]
World waste could grow 70 per cent as cities boom, warns World Bank
Tepic, MexicoThomson Reuters Foundation Global waste could grow by 70 per cent by 2050 as urbanisation and populations rise, said the World Bank on Thursday, with South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa set to generate the biggest increase in rubbish. Countries could reap economic and environmental benefits by better collecting, recycling and disposing of trash, according […]
‘Vicious cycle’ as conflict uproots millions in Africa
Thomson Reuters Foundation Violence and conflict in sub-Saharan Africa forced 15,000 people from their homes every day in 2017, double the previous year’s figure, an international monitoring centre said on Wednesday, urging more help for those displaced within their own countries. The region accounted for nearly half the 11.8 million people worldwide who were displaced […]
Power-for-all push risks leaving out Africa’s poorest – official
Thomson Reuters Foundation Parts of Africa will get left behind in the global push to provide electric power to all unless national governments and the international community agree on a plan for faster action in places that are lagging, a top energy official has warned. Of the roughly one billion people who still lack access […]